Most Expensive Domain Names

Every year Forbes comes out with these great lists for the "World Richest People", "World’s Richest Billionaires" and even more specific one’s like "World’s Richest Supermodels". They always get me with their top 500 richest issue, I like to keep track of the who’s moved up and down… and why. In addition to profiling the world’s richest people, Forbe’s also reports on some other great niches, like "Top 5 Most Expensive Domains". Below is there list of top selling domains… don’t you wish you picked these up back in the 90’s!

ALT 1. Sex.com
$12 million

Originally registered by Gary Kremen, a Silicon Valley software salesman, in 1994. Sold in a private sale for a mixture of cash and stock to Boston-based Escom LLC in January 2005.
ALT 2. Porn.com
$9.5 million

MXN Limited bought its way into the porn industry in May. Brokered by Moniker.com, the deal stands as the largest all-cash URL transaction ever.
ALT 3. Business.com
$7.5 million

Sold to ECompanies Venture Group, headed by former Disney executive Jake Weinbaum, in 1999. Yet even the highly prized name couldn’t protect the business from the dot-com bust; the site is now a parking lot for other URLs.
ALT 4. Diamond.com
$7.5 million

Odimo sold this jewel of a site–along with its jewelry inventory–to Ice.com, an online retailer, in May 2006. Ice.com paid cash for the site and an extra $2 million for Odimo’s bling.
ALT 5. Beer.com
$7 million

Originally owned by Bill Fisher, a Web site developer who also owned Budweiser.com and Guinness.com. Sold to Belgium-based Interbrew, the world’s second-largest brewer by volume, the site now features racy content aimed at a male audience.
- All images shown above are copyright of Shutterstock. (Full Forbes slideshow)

If you missed out on these domains, don’t feel bad. There are still plenty of domains being sold for thousands upon thousands of dollars. Just when I was at Affiliate Summit East, Moniker held a live domain auction and "AffiliateDirectory.com" went for an insane $30,000! It’s a good name, but I didn’t think it was that great. You’d be surprised what’s selling for what. Whether you are buying domains to flip and sell, or build them up as established web sites, there is still an ever increasing demand for quality names and you never know who just might want yours next!

  • Posted in Blogging, Business Deals
14 pieces of wisdom given by ye faithful
  1. Tom Printy said on July 25th, 2007 at 5:35 pm

    So where do you find domains that are for sale and where so you sell a domain once you have it?

    Reply
  2. Zac Johnson said on July 25th, 2007 at 6:48 pm

    greatdomains.com, sedo.com and moniker.com to name a few.

    Reply
  3. Etienne Teo said on July 25th, 2007 at 8:29 pm

    would be great to see google.com for sales…hahaha

    Reply
  4. icedragon said on July 26th, 2007 at 4:16 am

    Hey Zac, amazing site, how many hours a day, or week, you work (blogging, research, posting) ?

    Can someone buy a domain and months, or years later sell it for profits, even the domain was only reserved ?

    Reply
  5. chrisblogging.com said on July 26th, 2007 at 2:27 pm

    It would have been nice to get in on some of these domains early on; like 10 years ago!

    Reply
  6. Mubin said on July 27th, 2007 at 8:16 am

    Business.com just sold for 360 MILLION!!!!!

    I bet the guy that sold it for 7.5 million feels like an idiot now.

    Reply
  7. Jim Kukral said on July 27th, 2007 at 10:31 am

    Heh, makes me want to kick myself in the head for being dumb in 95 and not buying a ton of stuff. Oh well.

    Reply
  8. chrisblogging.com said on July 27th, 2007 at 2:35 pm

    I was just reading about business.com; that is crazy to say the least!

    Reply
  9. Gregg Hawkins said on July 28th, 2007 at 2:53 am

    I read somewhere that business.com just recently sold for 350 million. I forgot where, but it said that the DOW Jones and NYT were in a bidding war with another guy. The third guy ended up winning the bid against two big players. Could you confirm this?

    -Gregg

    Reply
  10. Mubin said on July 28th, 2007 at 7:00 am

    yes, some telephone directory type company bought it.

    Reply
  11. Angel said on July 28th, 2007 at 9:13 am

    Do you think it’s a viable money-making scheme, buying and selling domains?

    Reply
  12. Most Expensive Domain Sold said on January 23rd, 2008 at 8:58 pm

    Here’s an interesting idea and unlike others out there, this one can really happen so get on board. This can go sooner than most.

    http://www.mostexpensivedomainsold.com/

    Reply
  13. Shopping for domain name at Blogjer is about blogger said on August 3rd, 2007 at 12:05 am

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  14. [...] moste expensive domain names [...]

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